What if?

[ek88]

Instead of arguing, how about we have a little fun with our various opinions, for a change? Let's play a little game of "what if Tommy and JY never joined Styx?"

First, Dennis and the Panozzos form Styx with JC and another guitarist. Things progress much like they actually did: Lady becomes a hit and Equinox experiences similar success, despite Lorelei having a different sound w/o JY's input. Curulewski departs. Styx next releases Grand Illusion, which includes all Dennis-penned songs from CB and GI, plus a couple of tracks from the other guitarists. Come Sail Away and Grand Illusion are the only singles, but CSA has a more ballad-like sound to it, sans the influences of JY and Tommy, and doesn't quite break the top 10. The album still goes platinum, but without Fooling Yourself and Miss America, fails to go multi-platinum. Styx then releases Pieces Of Eight, which fails to spawn any singles, but Queen Of Spades and Pieces Of Eight immediately become fan favorites. Still, the album manages to go gold. Next is Cornerstone. Dennis writes another pair of ballads for the album, to go along with Babe and First Time. All four are top 10 smashes, with Babe becoming the bands first #1 single. Many long time fans are alienated by the drastic change in sound. Both guitarists quit in disgust, and the tour is cut short. However, the album goes multi-platinum, because of the ballads' appeal to large numbers of new Styx fans. Long time fans long for the Wooden Nickel days (and sound). Dennis brings two studio musicians on board, and Paradise Theatre is released. Best Of Times is a huge success, but the rest of the tracks sound a lot like Lonely People and Nothing Ever Goes As Planned. On the heels of Cornerstone, the album goes platinum, but is considered a commercial failure. Styx tours less and less as the years go by, and fans begin to lose interest. Styx officially breaks up, but Dennis records Mr. Roboto for a sci-fi soundtrack under the Styx name. The band is never heard from again., until nearly all their hit singles begin showing up in commercials in the late 90's.

Meanwhile, JY forms the James Young Project and after the release of Miss America, the band is forever immortalized in the annals of one-hit wonders. After the band's short-lived success, JY begins teaching college and can still be found to this day playing small clubs in the Chicago area.

Also meanwhile, we find Tommy Shaw still on the bowling alley circuit in Alabama with MS Funk. Crystal Ball is a fan favorite, but fails to get the group an album deal. Unable to make ends meet, MS Funk calls it quits. Determined to be a rock star, Shaw forms a new band, Hannah. A demo of Renegade gets them a record deal and the song goes on to be their first and biggest single, breaking the top 10. Their first (self-titled) album soon follows, and in addition to Renegade, includes Blue Collar Man, which breaks the top 20. Fooling Yourself is also on the album, but is entirely acoustic (no keyboards or electric guitar). It becomes a minor hit, spending one week in the top 40. The album initially goes gold, but after relentless touring, it makes platinum (barely). A follow-up album is released shortly thereafter, but only spawns the hit single Too Much Time On My Hands. However, the single along with the fan base is enough to make the album go gold. Again, the band tours relentlessly (including a couple of dates opening for Ted Nugent) . All band members except Tommy are exhausted from the extensive touring, and decide to take a break. Never one to be idle, Tommy releases one solo album (Girls With Guns), but without the success of Styx to bolster interest, the album bombs (worse than it did in reality). The band never gets back together, and Shaw is not heard from again until the late 80's, when he forms Damn Yankees, along with Ted Nugent and Jack Blades. After two albums and tours, the Yanks take a long break but are reportedly planning a third album in the near future.

Well, there's my little ditty! I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else comes up with! Lots of potential here

[classicstyxfan]

OK ek, since you have had no takers to this point, I will do a bit of speculation here, but I am going to go on a slightly different tangent....
I will offer my opinion on what the career path of each member would have been if there was no STYX, and they did not have their musical dreams come true........

DENNIS.....well, he would have certainly found another way to be a showman, he was born to perform. I believe he would have invented David Copperfields schtick before ol' D.C. had a chance to himself. His greatest trick ? why of course it would have been a made for TV special, in which he made part of a city block seemingly dissapear.....he would have called it......THE GRAND ILLUSION at THE PARADISE THEATER !

J.Y. I think he would have tried to make a go of it in his group the James Young Group, when in a twist of fate, one night Phil Jackson would have been in the audience.......Phil, realizing what an asset JY's lightening fast fingers and height could be on the Bulls Dynasty he was building, begs JY to join the team , and become the piece of the puzzle that helps MJ, Scottie, Phil and the gang win their 6 NBA titles, JY hesitates, but finally comes on board, and is forever revered in Chicago history as THE RELUCTANT LEGEND !

THE PANAZZO's well, with a great italian name like that, and living in Chicago, what else could they do......but open a Pizzeria ! they would become famous for JOHN"S ( spicy chicken ) DRUMSTICKS and CHUCKY'S ( 4 ) CHEESE Pizza ! and open many successful locations all around Chicagoland !

TOMMY, well, Tommy always was a Ladies man, and he would have likely opened a special school for women to help them learn self Defense....some of his classes would include:

CRYSTAL BALL - a course about pre-determining safe routes to and from the places they travel

FOOLING YOURSELF - a course about avoiding having false sense of security in places where danger may be lurking.

and of course the firearms safety course he calls GIRLS WITH GUNS !

and that's the way it wasn't.....except in my imagination that is.....

PS ek, at least I took a stab at it !

[ek88]

I love it!

[yogi]

Heres what would of happened, I am sure of it. JY DID join the group, only Tommy was NEVER discovered by Styx.

John Curulewski- left the group after the release of Equinox. Little was ever heard about John but we do know that he fought a strain of V.D. that seemed resistent to antibiotics for years. John did start his own button business called 'Man Hands Buttons & Supplies'. His two greatest button slogans were 'Bon Lives' & 'Help'.

After the release of Equinox the band toured but NEVER recorded another album together. Here is what happened to the rest of the members.

John Panozzo- continued to be a drummer for various bands around the Chicago area. His big breaks came later on. Thats the drumwork of John that you heard in the Hamms and Grain Belt commercials from years ago. He also did some drumming in a 1978 commercial for the Chicago Black Hawks.

Chuck Panozzo- Moved to San Francisco, and in 1979 became the leash carrying, mace holding Village People member known as 'The Dog Catcher'

James (JY) Young- After the Equinox tour ends, and the group infighting begins JY leaves the band for a job at NASA in Houston. James (JY) Young works for NASA from 1979- 1995 ( JY NEVER misses a day of work, seems to avoid all the in office fighting and disputes, withstands several presidential changes, and cutbacks while at NASA and is pretty much thought of as a LEGEND in the space program). Then in 1995, JY makes a horrible mistake and accepts an executive position at the up and coming energy company Enron. James(JY) Young is currently waiting to stand trial, for bilking millions of dollars from its shareholders.

Dennis Deyoung- Because of Dennis's controlling nature one by one the members of Styx disband. Dennis doesnt care, and through the mid 70's he has a string of hits, highlighted by his rerecording of Tony Orlandos 'Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree'. In 1979 Dennis, Leo Sayer, and Neil Sedaka embark on an exhausting 6 month 6 show tour up and down the Illinois/Wisconsin border. With the tremendous success of this tour Dennis hits the talk show circuit and finds himself a regular on Michael Douglas, Merv Griffin, and Virginia Graham. Still, Dennis is not happy being away so much. Dennis and his wife decide to team up, and they rerecord The Captain and Tennile's"Love Will Keep Us Together" They do a small tour( 2 shows), with Paul Anka. Then Dennis decides to get his entire family in the act. In 1985 Dennis purchases a muliti colored bus and the family tours America. The Deyoung family now known as 'The Hunchbacks' , do over 200 shows in 1985 alone. When former Styx bandmate James (JY) Young hears of this, from his NASA office he is quoted as saying' That Dennis is an animal, thank god I got out when I did'. Grunge ends up being the downfall of 'The Hunchbacks' Dennis has written and sung two new television jingles for the current Arbys advertisements.

Tommy Shaw- Though NEVER in Styx Tommy was rumored to be the replacement for John Curulewski. Tommy and his band M.S. Funk had a small cult following before breaking out big in the Amish Community. They then had tremendous success on the Bowling Alley Circuit. Their BIG break would come when M.S. Funk is asked to do ALL the songs for The Kingpin Soundtrack.The soundtrack for Kingpin goes on to become the biggest selling soundtrack of all time. The Amish do protest when the song "The 'Ish' shuffle" reaches #5. They protest even more when the song 'The 7-10 Amish Split' stays at #1 for 7 weeks. M.S. Funk breaks up less than a year later, without having ever recorded another album. The reason for the breakup is that Tommy Shaw marries then drummer Michael Marts 9 year old daughter Hannah( It is rumored Hannah is the inspiration behind Tommy's song Little Girl World). Tommy is currently trying to revive his career on the Barber Shop Circuit. Tommy and his band' The Easy Bake Ovens' can be found playing(Tu-Sat) in barbershops throughout the south. Tommy has 2 songs that can be heard in the Movie Barber Shop ll, and found on its soundtrack. The soundtrack is currently a stickered CD( bad lyrics) so Tommy's current wife(Jeannie) has only been able to hear the Wal-Mart version, and she has not been able to see the movie because of its R rating.

One side note: Dennis's wife (Yoko) is rumored to be in line for an Executive Position at the Overseas Branch of The U.S. Postal Service. Before Yoko can accept this position she has to finish up writing her second book. Its a biography about Jerry(from Subway). There is also a rumor Dennis will have a new single that is found in the sleeve of his wifes new book.